Throughout the twentieth century Iranian Jews were courted by national, religious, and global movements that pulled them in different political directions in the name of progress and modernity. Zionism and communism, nationalism and revolution vied for their participation. More often than not, their response was to stretch the boundaries of these broad labels and combine them with their own political vocabularies. Examining Jewish newspapers, poetry, and other materials from within the community, this talk will explore how Jews represented themselves and their places within these competing currents. 

Daniel Amir is a Neubauer Junior Research Fellow at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University. A social and cultural historian of Iranian Jews, he holds a DPhil from the University of Oxford’s Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. His articles have been published in Middle Eastern Literatures, the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, and the Jewish Quarterly Review.